Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would restrict stimulus funding for wind energy grants to only go to projects that do not benefit foreign companies in any way. Further, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and other senators have asked the administration and Treasury to immediately suspend all payments to such projects.

A National Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) of 25 percent by 2025 could create 274,000 new renewable energy industry jobs, according to the report “Job Impacts of a National Renewable Electricity Standard” from RES Alliance for Jobs prepared by Navigant Consulting.

A wind power article failed to detail its positive aspects, according to Lisa Daniels, Executive Director of Windustry, as she reminds us that “Wind energy development serves a vital public need.”

If you need a pick-me-up today, or a reminder of how fun feed-in tariffs can be, take a listen to this: Ed Regan's (a.k.a general manager for strategic planning at Gainsville Regional Utilities) Feed-in Tariff Anthem.

The headline “Chinese turbines” has dominated the news media and blogs regarding wind power during November after U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer sent a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu and commented, “I'm all for investing in clean energy, but we should be investing in the United States, not China. The goal of the stimulus was to spur job creation here, not overseas.”

“South Dakota and Minnesota have robust wind resources to harness, particularly in the area where the power plant was proposed.”
—Lisa Daniels, Windustry

Big Stone II was originally slated to be a cost-effective, clean-coal project to be up and running as early as 2011 near Milbank, South Dakota, supplying new energy for the Midwest and even to Eastern states. Now that the project has been cancelled, many are wondering what went wrong and what will replace the power capacity that it would have supplied to the CapX2020 transmission lines planned for Minnesota.

As the state of Minnesota seeks to generate 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025, communities are finding both that they can be part of that solution and that solution can be part of the future of their community.

One of my pet peeves, as I scan media articles about wind energy, is the number of times when the "community" part of wind energy is either poorly communicated or entirely misunderstood.  So it is refreshing to find good stories in major media outlets which truly represent community wind and I feel like I should pass them along.  That's the case with

"Get small and get in!" is the new message from the federal government, according to Denis Thoet, who manages Long Meadow Farm in West Gardiner, Maine.